Aligning Engineering and Sales Intent: The Strategic Imperative for Configuration Lifecycle Management
How manufacturers can eliminate configuration errors and optimize product portfolios through systematic PLM and ERP data validation?
The cost of delivering an incorrect customized solution extends far beyond immediate replacement expenses. Organizations face significant risks including:
- customer dissatisfaction,
- damaged relationships, and
- potential revenue loss from negative market perception.
Understanding how to prevent such costly errors requires examining the fundamental challenges in configuration management and implementing strategic solutions.
Modern manufacturing organizations face unprecedented demand for product customization across both B2C and B2B markets. Companies have responded by implementing various strategies including expanded product portfolios, engineer-to-order (ETO) capabilities, and configure-to-order (CTO) solutions. However, regardless of the approach adopted, a critical challenge remains: ensuring accurate alignment between customer orders and manufacturing capabilities.
Contemporary manufacturing IT environments typically feature heterogeneous system architectures where critical product data resides across multiple platforms. Engineering teams maintain data in PLM systems using engineering BOMs and configuration models, while sales and manufacturing organizations operate within ERP systems containing commercial BOMs and different configuration constraints.
This distributed data architecture creates inherent alignment challenges between engineering and commercial intent, as each department operates with distinct systems, processes, and data formats.
Are misaligned BOMs slowing down your order-to-manufacture process?
Misaligned data between PLM and ERP systems generates several critical operational risks:
Configuration Overselling
Sales systems may present customization options that appear feasible but violate fundamental engineering constraints. This disconnect can result in commitments to delivery schedules based on standard manufacturing assumptions, only to discover later that configurations require additional engineering development or cannot be manufactured.
Configuration Underselling
Viable product configurations may remain unavailable to customers due to conflicting rules between systems that prevent these options from being exposed. This represents lost revenue opportunities where organizations fail to capitalize on legitimate market demand.
Late-Stage Error Detection
Configuration errors often surface during manufacturing phases when schedules are compressed and costs have already been committed. Traditional validation methods lack the analytical capabilities required to detect these alignment issues across complex product portfolios.
Given that configurable products can encompass up to 10200 valid configurations, manual verification approaches prove inadequate for comprehensive validation requirements.
A New Approach: Configuration Lifecycle Management
Rather than implementing additional systems of record, the optimal solution involves establishing a shared source of truth that validates and harmonizes intent across existing platforms without system replacement. This approach focuses on understanding, validating, and aligning configuration data from multiple sources while preserving existing organizational investments.
The foundation of an effective Configuration Lifecycle Management approach relies on Virtual Tabulation®, a patented neuro-symbolic AI technology that fundamentally transforms configuration validation processes. Unlike traditional approaches that validate configurations individually during creation, Virtual Tabulation® pre-computes all valid configurations for specified product models, rules, and constraints.
This process generates a comprehensive lookup file containing the complete solution space of valid configurations, providing several strategic advantages:
- Immediate Error Identification: Virtual Tabulation® compilation immediately identifies rule conflicts and errors, enabling proactive resolution before manufacturing phases.
- Complete Solution Space Visibility: Organizations gain comprehensive oversight of all possible product configurations, including analysis of why certain combinations are restricted.
- Enhanced Engineering Accuracy: Complete configuration visibility enables engineers to develop more precise Bills of Material that accurately reflect engineering intent without over-engineering or under-engineering solutions.
- Portfolio Optimization: Solution space analysis reveals low-value or unused variants, enabling organizations to eliminate unnecessary complexity and reduce operational costs.
Using the power of Virtual Tabulation®, it is possible to both validate and align PLM and ERP product configuration data using the following approach:
Engineering Intent Validation
- Import engineering BOMs and product configuration models from PLM systems
- Validate data integrity using Virtual Tabulation® to identify rule conflicts
- Resolve conflicts with detailed guidance indicating affected rules while maintaining PLM system authority
- Analyze blocked values through solution space analysis to understand available engineering options
Commercial Intent Validation
- Import commercial product configuration models and BOMs from ERP systems
- Validate commercial rules using Virtual Tabulation® compilation to identify conflicts
- Correct identified errors in source ERP data with comprehensive guidance
- Analyze commercial solution space to understand customer-facing options
Cross-System Alignment Analysis
Compare solution spaces from PLM and ERP systems to identify:
- Discrepancies where sales systems offer unmanufacturable configurations
- Opportunities where engineering constraints may be unnecessarily restrictive
- Inconsistencies that could result in customer delivery failures
End product configuration misalignment – Validate PLM/ERP Models in Real Time
Beyond validation and alignment, Configuration Lifecycle Management encompasses complete configuration oversight from design through manufacturing and service phases. This approach includes maintaining Digital Configuration Threads – comprehensive records of configurations throughout the entire product lifecycle – providing organizations with detailed insights into product utilization and delivery patterns.
Configuration Lifecycle Management represents a strategic evolution in manufacturing operations management. By implementing systematic validation and alignment processes, organizations can ensure that every customer commitment can be fulfilled while optimizing their product portfolios for maximum efficiency and profitability.
This approach addresses fundamental operational challenges while positioning organizations for sustainable competitive advantage in increasingly complex market environments.
Jesper Blak Møller, PhD, Director of System Architecture and Co-founder of Configit is responsible for defining the technical and architectural direction for Configit’s SaaS and on-prem software solutions. A part of Configit’s product leadership team, Jesper has extensive knowledge about rule-based systems, SAP variant configuration, and SAP pricing. In addition to a PhD in computer science, Jesper’s background includes working as a solutions architect in Configit’s professional services department, delivering software solutions integrated to SAP.